Kiwis fret over McCaw after blow
Print Edition
THE All Blacks’ advance to a second successive Rugby World Cup final appearance was feted in New Zealand yesterday, but local media fretted that a stray elbow could rule talismanic captain Richie McCaw out of the title-decider.
The defending champion will play the winner of Australia and Argentina for the Webb Ellis Cup after a tense 20-18 win over South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday. But rugby-mad New Zealand faces a nervous wait to see whether McCaw will be cited for his contact on Francois Louw after he felled the Springboks flanker early in the match.
Video footage posted online shows McCaw charging into a ruck after 20 minutes of the match and Louw reeling from a blow as the New Zealand captain brushed past in pursuit of the ball.
The loss of the inspirational 34-year-old to suspension would be a big blow to the All Blacks’ hopes of a back-to-back championship and a likely sad ending to the playing career of one of the game’s finest players. McCaw has not declared he intends to retire after the RWC but is widely tipped to do so.
New Zealand’s top rugby pundits went into overdrive defending McCaw’s honor, blaming a British media conspiracy and claiming suggestions the contact might have been deliberate were “insulting”.
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